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Object of the Month October: “Rüdiger Trautsch Can Also Do Women!”

1. October 2018

Widely known for his photographic portraits of men and for documenting important gay history moments such as the HAW demonstration in Berlin 1973, Rüdiger Trautsch (born in Hamburg in 1946) has at least other two professional sides not so many people are familiar with. He also (1) draws and (2) takes photographic portraits of women, among them such famous images as those of Marianne Sägebrecht from 1988 that were published in various magazines such as Tempo and Italian glossies. He also took photos of surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim (known for her Breakfast in Fur from 1936, today in the collection of MoMa in New York).That is why, as he spent the month of September in our archive cataloging hundreds of his own works, he exclaimed one day, in jest and with pride: „Rüdiger can do women, too!“The artist started drawing in 1965 and never stopped. To this day, he enjoys spending three hours a week drawing, for pleasure and for practice. But Rüdiger has turned into an acknowledged photographer who took images of legendary LGBTIQ* protest marches in the 1970s, but also of ‚cottaging‘ in Hamburg’s public toilets in the early 1980s. (Titel of that series: Aus Liebe hat es keiner getan.)The untitled drawing of a woman from Rüdiger’s Tuesday Evening Drawing Group was chosen by our archive team as Object of the Month October. It was executed in 2002, with charcoal. It features an anonymous female model, the quick lines are characteristic of the artist who often has just 15 to 30 minutes to make such a drawing.
Text by José Gabriel Navarro.